tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

Probably one of the most coveted roles in film, My Fair Lady's Eliza Dolittle already has a history of being a role most sought after by big stars in cinema - Audrey Hepburn, Julie Andrews and Elizabeth Taylor, among others. Just now, The Telegraph reported that in the latest film adaptation, Keira Knightley was cast as the ambitious, working class girl who started out as a flower seller and became the toast of high society.


Details as follows:

"Joe and Keira are looking forward to working together again immensely," says a friend of the 37-year-old director. In August, I reported that Knightley had been forced to compete with Johansson, 24, for the role of the Cockney flower seller played by Audrey Hepburn in the 1964 film. "I have two actresses as potential Elizas, one British, the other American," said Sir Cameron Mackintosh, who is producing the film with Duncan Kenworthy, at the time. "You'd know their names, but I'm not letting on." Last week, Kenworthy said: "I think Keira would be absolutely fabulous in it." Emma Thompson is writing the script for the film, for which Daniel Craig has been mooted as a possible Professor Henry Higgins. [ read more ]

She was reported to have beaten Scarlett Johansson and Anne Hathaway for the role. This will be the third film collaboration between Joe Wright and Keira Knightley - after Pride and Prejudice (where she got nominated for an Oscar) and Atonement.

More about the casting, a glimpse into the past (featuring stars who sought out the role) and more after the jump!
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Historical Perspectives - My Fair Lady: My Fair Lady is a 1964 musical film adaptation of the Lerner and Loewe stage musical, My Fair Lady, based on the film adaptation of the stage play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. The ending and the ballroom scene are from the 1938 film Pygmalion rather than Shaw's original stage play. The film was directed by George Cukor and stars Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison.

The film won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.

The Plot: A chance meeting between two noted British linguists, Prof. Henry Higgins and Col. Hugh Pickering, leads to a wager that will test Higgins' skills. After they hear a cockney flower girl caterwaul in the street, Higgins proposes to transform the girl, Eliza Doolittle, into a refined Victorian lady with an aristocratic accent. After some hesitation Eliza agrees to become their test case.

Detailed Plot: In London, Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), an arrogant, irascible, misogynistic professor of phonetics, believes that it is the accent and tone of one's voice which determines a person's prospects in society. He boasts to a new acquaintance, Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), himself an expert in phonetics, that he can teach any woman to speak so "properly" that he could pass her off as a duchess at an embassy ball, citing, as an example, a young flower seller called Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), who has a strong Cockney accent.

Eliza later goes to Higgins seeking speech lessons. Her great ambition is to work in a flower shop, but her thick working-class accent makes her unsuitable for such a position. All she can afford to pay is a shilling per lesson, whereas Higgins is used to training wealthier members of society. Pickering, who is staying with Higgins, is intrigued by the idea and bets Higgins all the expenses that he will not be able to do it. Inspired by the challenge, Higgins accepts.

Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), a dustman, shows up three days later, ostensibly to protect his daughter's virtue, but in reality simply to extract some money from Higgins, and is bought off with £5. Higgins is impressed by the man's honesty, his natural gift for language, and especially his brazen lack of morals (Doolittle explains, "Can't afford 'em!"). Higgins sends Doolittle to make a speech for a wealthy American who is interested in morality. Eliza the Cockney flower girl poses as a member of the aristocracy, while Professor Henry Higgins looks on

Eliza goes through many forms of speech training, such as speaking with marbles in her mouth. At first, she makes no progress, but just as she, Higgins, and Pickering are about to give up, Eliza tries one more time and finally "gets it"; she instantly begins to speak with an impeccable upper class accent.

As a test, Higgins takes her to Ascot Racecourse, where she makes a good impression with her stilted, but genteel manners, only to shock everyone by a sudden and vulgar lapse into Cockney while encouraging a horse to win a race: "C'mon Dover, move your bloomin' arse!" Higgins, who dislikes the pretentiousness of the upper class, partly conceals a grin behind his hand.

The bet is won when Eliza successfully passes as a mysterious lady of patently noble rank at an embassy ball and even dances with a foreign prince. Also at the ball is Zoltan Karpathy (Theodore Bikel), a Hungarian phonetics expert also trained by Higgins. After a brief conversation with Eliza, he certifies that she is of royal blood. This makes Higgins' evening, since he has always looked upon Karpathy as a bounder and a crook.

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After all the effort she has put in however, Eliza is given hardly any credit, all the praise going to Higgins. This, and his callous treatment towards her afterwards, especially his indifference to her future, causes her to walk out on him, leaving him mystified by her ingratitude.

Accompanied by Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Jeremy Brett), a young man she met at Ascot and who has become enamoured of her, Eliza returns to her old stomping ground at Covent Garden, but finds that with her genteel manners, upper-class accent and lovely clothes, she no longer fits in. She meets Alfred, who was left a large fortune by the wealthy American Higgins had sent him to, and is set to marry Eliza's step-mother (he feels that Higgins has ruined him, since he is now more bound by morals and responsibility). Eventually, Eliza ends up visiting Higgins' mother, who is incensed at her son's behaviour.

Higgins finds Eliza the next day and attempts to talk her into coming back to him. During a testy exchange, Higgins's ego gets the better of him and he explodes when Eliza announces that she is going to marry Freddy and become Karpathy's assistant. Eliza is satisfied that she has had her "own back" and rejects him. Higgins has to admit that rather than being a "a millstone around my neck... now you're a tower of strength, a consort battleship. I like you this way." Eliza leaves, saying they will never meet again.

After an argument with his mother - in which he concludes that he does not need Eliza or anyone else in life - Higgins makes his way home, stubbornly predicting that Eliza will come crawling back. However, he comes to the horrified realization that he has "grown accustomed to her face". He is reduced to playing an old phonograph recording of her voice lessons. Then, to his great delight, Eliza returns. [ source: The Wiki on My Fair Lady ]

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Watch the trailer of the 1964 film adaptation:

Featured Review: Roger Ebert has this to say about the movie:

Box office results: Released on October 21, 1964, the film grossed $72 million in the box office (Domestic), with a production budget of $17 million.

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Andrews' subsequent Academy Award for Mary Poppins - and the lack of a nomination for Hepburn (due to her being dubbed by Marni Nixon) - was seen by many as vindication for Julie Andrews, though both actresses denied that there was ever any animosity between them.

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Casting for the upcoming film: The Windsor Star discussed the latest film adaptation and deliberated on the role: Who should play Eliza Dolittle, Keira Knightley or Scarlett Johansson?

If you were re-making My Fair Lady, who'd be a better lead, Keira Knightley or Scarlett Johansson? That's the question co-producer Cameron Mackintosh is wrestling with, says The Telegraph, in England. First of all, I have to ask why bother, the 1964 Audrey Hepburn version being widely regarded as just about perfect. Then I have to ask if Keira can sing. Then I have to ask if anybody would believe Johansson as a waif. Then I have to ask if she can do a British working-class voice. Then I have to ask again why bother. Still, this does look like a thoroughbred production. Mackintosh knows how to make hits, the wonderful Emma Thompson is writing the script, the interesting Stephen Daldry is expected to direct, and Daniel Craig may play Henry Higgins. [ read more ]

Long Ago Captures favoured Knightley over Johansson, citing 'looks and accent' as the prime reasons, the period specialty site also noted that both Keira and Scarlett can sing. The Big Screen preferred Anne Hathaway: 

Now, for Eliza Doolittle. That's a little tougher. It would have to be someone with reserved beauty that could be squelched for the first part of the movie and brought out in the second. But also someone with the acting and singing chops to handle the role... My choice would be Anne Hathaway. According to her biography on the IMDb, she was a top-ranked soprano and she was offered the role of Christine in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera that went to Emmy Rossum. [ read more ]

tMF's take: I think they made the perfect casting in Keira Knightley. She is beautiful and radiant and she can deliver even the most complicated of lines with aplomb. She was reported to have enrolled in singing lessons, so that would take care of the singing part.

I was impressed with Anne Hathaway in Becoming Jane (with James McAvoy as her leading man). Of course, she's not British, but she delivered an astonishing performance. It was her attempt to speak with an accent that endeared her to me. It was not perfect of course, but she did impressed me. She has this innate ability to be charming, witty and comedic all at the same time - not an easy thing to do. Julie Andrews, who played the role on stage, also got this ability. She can be quite charming and regal and witty and be comedic (without any over-acting at that!) and she definitely can sing.

As for Scarlett, she would be my third choice after Knightley and Hathaway. I love to mention Natalie Portman, but then again, she was already beaten by Hathaway for the role of Jane Austen in Becoming Jane...

Also note that the director supposedly to do the film is now Joe Wright. Stephen Daldry and even Danny Boyle were reportedly considered.

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What's on your mind? What can you say about the casting of Keira Knightley for the lead role in the latest film adaptation of My Fair Lady? Can she bested the performance of Audrey Hepburn from the previous movie adaptation? Do you think other actresses should have been cast for the role? Let us know what you think!

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